For a while there seemed to be a genuine interest on the Gambia-L in the
history & the future of the Gambian music, and I gladly would have
shared my firsthand knowledge of the history and my musical experiences
in order to contribute to a constructive discussion.
But reading mr. Oko Drammeh's messages & related reactions, I realized
the futility of such effort.
Instead I'll do something many people dislike me for most: telling the
truth.
To mr. Oko Drammeh: it took you 20 years to get me angry,
congratulations, you finally succeeded!

People know I don't waste my time with gossip and nonsense (the
suggestion I dabble in black magic will make anyone, who knows me & my
family background, roar with laughter).
Normally I wouldn't have bothered to react to the postings of mr. Oko
Drammeh, even though it's easy to refute his ramblings line for line.
Mr. Drammeh, who in the late 70s did a stint with Ifang Bondi as a
junior employee, had only limited access to the internal affairs of
Ifang Bondi. After his departure all his further information, covering
the following 20 years of Ifang Bondi, is based on speculation & rumours
and outright nonsense.

But it hurts me deeply how mr. Drammeh ridicules Paps Touray's image.
The moment Paps passed away, mr. Drammeh rushed in to exploit his death,
grossly using his obituary to promote the sale of his Soto Koto
products.
So I feel I owe it to Paps Touray to explain the true role mr. Drammeh
played, and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.

Paps & I had a strong bond. Somehow our characters complemented each
other, Paps being more of a dreamer, a bit unpractical and susceptible,
while I tend to be more down-to-earth and determined. Paps often relied
on me to solve his problems/regulate his life, which wasn't always easy.

However hard the Oko's of this world try, no-one will be able to destroy
the lifetime friendship that existed between me and Paps.
Likewise the wrong Oko has inflicted on Paps, sadly enough, cannot be
undone anymore.

Since the Super Eagles days Paps & I had formed a musical team. Paps was
a great singer and a good text writer, but not a composer/arranger,
lacking the necessary instrumental skills. Not uncommon for a singer,
after all even Pavarotti doesn't compose the arias he's singing. On the
other hand the Super Eagles experience had taught me to arrange &
compose. The two of us would spend endless hours together at home
working on new songs, later on often joined by Senemi (whom I myself had
recruited & trained). Ali Harb, Bai Janha, Ousman Beyai also
collaborated with Paps to put his lyrics to music.
From day one everyone relied on me to be the driving force behind Ifang
Bondi. Being a bandleader & artistic director is not a very glamorous
job, one that few musicians would aspire, and certainly no-one else
within Ifang Bondi ever wanted it. It implies a lot of responsibility
and stamina. While other band members are free to come & go as they
please, and consequently do, the bandleader is left to struggle on in
heavy weather, when all crew has jumped boat, putting in all his effort
as well as money to keep the ship afloat. I've kept Ifang Bondi sailing
for better & worse. After Karamo, Paps and Senemi had quit many people
expected, even hoped Ifang Bondi to perish. Instead I started to train
young local musicians. By now dozens of young gifted artists have
benefited from international touring & recording with Ifang Bondi. It's
an ongoing creative process, securing the authentic music for the next
generation, true to the ideology of Ifang Bondi.

During his job with Ifang Bondi mr. Drammeh's greatest claim to fame is
writing some liner notes for the sleeve of the Saraba album. Otherwise
he isn't remembered for any lasting contribution to Ifang Bondi.
Hence mr.Drammeh wasn't really missed when he went. Mr. Drammeh himself
however wasn't prepared to let go, trying desperately to get a grip on
Ifang Bondi and for the next 20 years kept pestering us with his dubious
schemes.

With time mr.Drammeh's obsession with Ifang Bondi assumed megalomaniac
proportions. First by declaring himself - in media interviews, bios, job
interviews - the manager, then founder-member of Ifang Bondi &
originator of the Afro-Manding Sound, and eventually even manager of
Super Eagles - in a self-promoting article which he submitted to the
Rough Guide of World Music (which was promptly corrected in the next
edition, after people noticed this blatantly untrue fact).

Yet my wife and I once gave mr. Drammeh the benefit of the doubt, when
he invited us to discuss the plan for a US tour, labelled "the Golden
Opportunity"
The proposal consisted of expanding Ifang Bondi into a 25-piece band,
including long-dead musicians, blind teenage girls, several of mr.
Drammeh's Dutch wives/girlfriends etc. Leadership of this ambitious
enterprise to be formed by a triumvirate of mr. Drammeh, Kunon Jarjutay
and Paps.
Mr. Drammeh graciously assigned me the - unpaid - job of training this
travelling circus, in 4 weeks time, but otherwise I wasn't included in
the line-up.
Artist fee for the lucky ones to be selected consisted of free transport
and a 2 meals a day...
I duly showed the Golden Opportunity to the other members in The Gambia,
we had a big laugh, binned it and went on with our own business.

Other people however, notably musicians and music professionals, didn't
escape unharmed. Mr. Drammeh accumulated massive debts everywhere,
cheating people on contracts & payments; he got blacklisted by world
music promoters and agencies, and finally, after a legal battle, was
even kicked out of his own African festival. Very sad was the fate of
the young Seck sisters from Dakar, who paid a lot of money to Oko after
being promised a 20-gig international tour, only to find out - when
stranded in Holland - that it was all a big lie. It caused a huge
scandal in Senegal.
Mr. Drammeh disrepute affected us as well: due to his claim about being
our manager, we were sought out by angry people, victim of his schemes,
who assumed we'd know his hide-out.

In 1991, only a few weeks before departing for our international tour,
Paps Touray decided to resign - tired of the hardship of touring and the
rigours of rehearsing a new repertoire. All of us, me in particular,
were very upset.
In vain his family, including Mas Sosseh, as well as fellow musicians
such as Bai Janha, Ali Harb, Ousman Beyai tried to make him change his
mind. All these people can testify to the truth of this.

Meanwhile mr. Drammeh turned record producer. After a fateful recording
with Abdel Kabirr (who will be happy to provide details) and the "Soto
Koto Band" - a loose collection of western studio musicians, Mr. Drammeh
moved on to the exploitation of the "Legend". He brought Paps to Holland
with the promise to turn him into a superstar. It must have come as a
bad surprise that Paps failed to be a composer. So Ousman Beyai was
rushed in to rescue the recording project, trying to reconstruct from
old tapes the "big Ifang Bondi anthem tunes" Paps never composed...
Lack of professional artistic direction turned the project into a
failure. But finally somehow a record was produced, with mr. Drammeh
claiming, at the expense of the lawful composers, a substantial share of
the copyrights as "arranger" - even though he cannot write one single
note.

So finally Paps Touray's splendid solo career was ready to take off. And
in the capable hands of top producer mr. Drammeh Paps' solo career,
between 1993 and 2001, comprised the dazzling number of 6 concerts, 2 of
them in mr. Drammeh's own festival, a sorry sight no Gambian wishes to
remember.
In between - with mr Drammeh hiding in Hollywood - Paps was left in
Amsterdam to fend for himself, penniless, visa expired, moving from one
sympathizing friend's house to another - for some time I paid a cousin
of mine for Paps' upkeep.

Paps' solo career culminated in the memorable tour to Sweden, when on
arrival in Stockholm the band were welcomed by a US fax from mr. Drammeh
"TOUR CANCELLED".
The Dutch band members, including Ousman Beyai, promptly returned,
paying for their own tickets. Paps & Kunon were stranded in Sweden.
Before long their visa expired and eventually they ended up in jail.
Kunon was extradited while Paps was rescued by marrying a local lady.
(Stockholm Gambians, kindly correct me if I'm wrong)
Paps remained in Stockholm, depressed and bitter, brooding on a chance
to take mr. Drammeh to court. Finally, his health ravaged, people helped
him to go home to The Gambia.
The whole Stockholm diaspora knew exactly what Oko Drammeh did to Paps;
they also see with their own eyes how mr. Drammeh, by means of an
obituary, tries to turn the loss of a great musician into a personal
profit - yet people think it befitting to extend their heartfelt
sympathy to such a person...

So now we have 2 stories:
- One is Badou Jobe's story, who, because of never quiting, happens to
be the most knowledgeable person on Ifang Bondi, from its conception 30
years ago up till now; whose life consists of plain hard work and
professional skills, and who doesn't owe - musically or otherwise -
anything to anyone, least of all to supernatural powers :).
- The other one is the story of a former Ifang Bondi employee hovering
around in a twilight zone of voodoo, spiteful gossip, deceit, lies and
jealousy, and who thrives on people's credulity.

No doubt the 2nd story makes better reading, judging by the reactions.
So I gladly leave the field to the likes of mr. Drammeh and his
revelations, for the members of the Gambia-L to gloat on, wishing them
happy reading

Badou Jobe

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